The present invention relates to rescue devices for rescuing individuals who find themselves in a body of water adjacent a vessel such as a small boat or the like, either because the particular individual has fallen overboard or because the vessel has capsized, for example.
One of the great difficulties encountered in connection with marine rescue operations is encountered in connection with lifting out of the water a person who has hold of a rescue device. In general the opposed sides of the vessel, even where it is a small boat, are so high that an individual in the water cannot throw his leg over the side of the vessel. It is almost invariably necessary to drag the individual back into the boat. An operation of this latter type is exceedingly awkward owing to the additional weight of the particular individual being rescued, resulting from the fact that the clothing of the individual is wet and also owing to the fact that a rescuer must work very frequently in an extremely cramped space.
There are known prior art devices in the form of rescue lines or chains which are fixed to the vessel and which are capable of being thrown into the water from the vessel. In this connection reference may be made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,018,494 and 3,216,030 as well as to Swedish Pat. No. 92,771.
The particular rescue chain which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,018,494 is used in such a way that the chain, fixed to the boat, at all times encircles the waist of an individual in the boat, so that should he fall from the boat and into the water, he cannot be carried too far away from the boat. The links of the particular rescue chain are preferably made large enough so that the particular individual can grasp the links and drag himself closer to the boat in order to facilitate his rescue.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,216,030, there is disclosed a rescue line having a large number of circular gripping components attached thereto. A line of this type is fixed at its opposed ends to the boat and may be coiled to relatively small size around fastening rings in the boat, the arrangement being such that one end of such a line is easily detachable as, for example, when the boat capsizes, in which event the rescue line falls into the water. Then the person or persons who find themselves in the water throw the rescue line over the inverted boat and grip the rings which are attached to the line so that such individuals can climb up on to the capsized vessel.